“Monday, Monday….Bah-da bah-da-da-da”… (sways & sings to the Mama’s & the Papa’s song by the same title)

Happy Monday morning to you, my friends! How is today treating you so far? Mine started out a little slower than usual, for whatever reason I really can’t tell you. I just woke up tired & not really feeling like I wanted to be productive even though I have a full to-do list to accomplish today. After a cup of coffee (ok, a FEW cups) I did manage to pick myself up off of the comfy papasan chair & head on over to the art studio (which is really just in the other room of my house) & get my daily list started.

I am working on several projects this week, some of which has carried over from last week. I have started a new custom ukulele painting project, that I am really excited about doing for the Ukulele Kids Club, Inc. I can’t wait to tell you more details about the theme I will be painting on it, but for right now I can only share my preparing process with you. Today I am prepping it to be painted, which requires careful sanding, then priming with a high-quality gesso to get ready for painting. After that has dried & cured, I will be both airbrushing & hand painting the design on this particular ukulele & I can’t wait to show you more about the finished product when the time arrives.

Another thing I have on my to-do list for this week is to prepare for a silk screen printing adventure. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done any silk screen printing, so I am VERY excited about getting back into doing it on a regular basis. Now that my equipment & workspace is all set up for it, I am busy today preparing the screens, coating them with the light sensitive emulsion & then in the next day or so I will be “burning” or “exposing” the screens with the artwork to be printed. No worries if you’re thinking to yourself “what the heck does THAT mean?” As I’m preparing, I am creating video of my process & will be sharing/posting these videos with you very soon, so you can see how things get done in this printing process.

In the midst of working on art projects, I have been trucking along in my online graphic design classes as well. It is actually starting to become very interesting & challenging which makes me very pleased. The first few weeks were all introduction classes, & while I enjoyed them, it was more like a review for me & was not very challenging. Now the classes, especially the course on image making, is putting my noggin into thinking mode & I’ve really gotten more out of it & am really enjoying it.

I’ve also recently been thinking about reopening my Etsy shop. I had shut it down a few months ago due to lack of sales, but to be honest, I was also not promoting it like I should have & I truly think that was the reason for lack of traffic & sales. Etsy is a platform that is getting harder and harder to get noticed on, due to oversaturation of the market & also because of Etsy’s ever-changing rules, regulations, & advertisement requirements. No, you don’t HAVE to spend money on Etsy advertising, but I’ve also noticed that newer shops & even many older shops with lower sales, don’t really get high up on the search list if you DON’T pay for Etsy ads. So right now, I am currently digging deeper into the research on how to get your shop noticed, what sells best on their platform & why and how to go about positively yelling from the online rooftops to clients both new & old that, “HEY! Here I am! Look at what goodness I have in my shop, I’ve got the art you want!” Once I feel a little more confident that I know HOW to put myself & my work out there, that I can ultimately handle the added workload, as well as getting my business plan revamped and mapped out, I will make a final decision on whether I will reopen my shop & when. I will also keep you updated on a reopening date if I do move forward this endeavor.

Along with all of the art things I have going on in the studio, I am currently nursing a very stubborn sick cat back to health. She is NOT being very cooperative either! Our old lady cat, Luna, decided to stop eating about a week and a half ago, so after 4 days in the animal hospital it was determined she had pancreatitis. The doctor was able to get her vitals & status back to normal, so she came home last Saturday but she still refuses to eat very much, which I keep TRYING to explain to her is not a wise choice for her to make, however she is not listening to a word I say! Also, have you ever tried giving a stubborn cat a regular schedule of medicines? GOOD GRIEF if her being sick and then refusing to eat isn’t stressful enough…. having to lovingly but sternly hold a cat down to give them a syringe of liquid medicine as well as having to crush up tablets of medicine into a food that she ALREADY doesn’t want to eat… it’s just insane. And to top it all off, our other cat, Tabby, is suffering from “Non recognition Aggression” and has been hissing at & ostracizing poor Luna because she didn’t come home with her “family scent” & picked up the scents at the animal hospital & her medicine. We thought she would be so happy to have her sister back home since she had been looking for her for days, but the exact opposite has happened. I really hope she gets over it soon & they become best buddies again.

So, tell me, what have YOU been up to? How is YOUR Monday going? Do you have anything fun on the agenda for this week? I would love to hear about your adventures & plans. You are more than welcome to leave me posts in the comments section. I would love to hear from you and what you’ve got going on, or just for you to drop in & say “hi” & if you are enjoying my blog posts. Also let me know what you would like for me to talk about in my posts. Ask me questions or tell me what you’ve got going in your own art journey!

Until next time, have a WONDERFUL week filled with productiveness, positivity, love and tons of happiness!